Jimmy Savile death: TV legend dies aged 84

Tributes pour in for 'national treasure'

Sir Jimmy Saville being greeted by George Galloway as he enters the Celebrity Big Brother House, 2006

He was the irrepressible TV presenter who made the wishes of hundreds of children come true and raised more than £40 million for charity.

Last night tributes poured in for national treasure Sir Jimmy Savile, who died yesterday aged 84.

The flamboyant radio DJ and face of Jim’ll Fix It was found dead at home in Leeds by police officers just after noon yesterday, days after he told friends he felt “indestructible”. He was due to celebrate his 85th birthday tomorrow.

Sir Jimmy had returned home from Leeds General Infirmary this month after spending 10 days with suspected pneumonia.

Close friend Steve Purdew, ­owner of a health club where Sir Jimmy frequently stayed, spoke to him on Wednesday.

Mr Purdew said: “I asked if he was well and he said he was fine. He said, ‘Don’t worry Steve, I am indestructible’. I can’t believe someone with Jim’s love for life has suddenly gone.”

Prince Charles also paid tribute to Sir Jimmy who raised hundreds of thousands for the Prince’s Trust.

A spokesman said: “The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were ­saddened to hear of Sir Jimmy Savile’s death. Their thoughts are with his family.”

Veteran presenter Tony Blackburn, 68, said: “Sir Jimmy was a one-off – a fantastic guy who will be ­remembered for dedicating his life to helping others. He was a big, over-the-top personality.”

Famous for driving a Rolls-Royce and smoking huge cigars – which he vowed never to quit – white haired Sir Jimmy loved tracksuits and gold jewellery.

In a career spanning seven ­decades he coined a string of catchphrases including “Howzabout that then” and “Now then, now then”.

He was born in Leeds on ­Halloween in 1926, the seventh child of bookmaker’s clerk Vincent and Agnes, the woman he always called the Duchess.

At five months old he almost died from pneumonia, but recovered after his mother prayed in church. He left school at 14 and when war broke out became a Bevin Boy to mine coal for the war effort.

A pit explosion damaged his spine so much he was told he would never walk again. But his grit and ­determination proved doctors wrong.

After a stint as a porter at Broadmoor ­Hospital he got into ­music and claimed to set up the world’s first disco in Leeds in 1948. It led to a career as a DJ, in the 1960s at Radio Luxembourg then, in 1964, he presented the first Top of the Pops.

He hosted 300 shows over 20 years – and fronted the last one in 2006.

Jim’ll Fix It ran from 1975 to 1994 and at the height of its fame he ­received 20,000 letters a week.

Sir Jimmy was also a Mensa member, runner of 212 marathons, cycle racer and ­wrestler – winning seven of his 107 bouts. Most of what he raised for charity went to Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He was fiercely political and a close friend of Margaret Thatcher.

He fronted the Government’s “clunk-click every-trip” seatbelt campaign in the 1970s, and was knighted in 1990.

In later life, bachelor Sir Jimmy, who revered the memory of his mother who died in 1973, featured in a ­ documentary by Louis Theroux which probed his apparently odd lifestyle.

He also appeared in Celebrity Big Brother four years ago. Yesterday, DJ David ­Hamilton said: “Our business is full of ­eccentric people, and Jimmy was the most colourful of them all.”

Janet Cope, 70, his former personal assistant and best friend, said: “He was in a class of his own.”

Thousands of tributes were also left on Twitter. Comedian Ricky Gervais wrote: “RIP Jimmy Savile. My first guest on my first TV show. A proper British eccentric.”